How to rebuild Australian cricket

Roar Guru

7th January, 2011

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The Crowd

Roar Guru

7th January, 2011

With the Ashes now lost, thoughts turn to the future and where Australian cricket is heading. Cricket in this country is now under severe pressure.

This is not only because of the poor form of the Test team, but also because of pressure from other sports in marketing and recruiting young players.

Here’s my plan on how Australian cricket can be brought back to health – both at domestic and international level:

1. Ease (not sack) the current selection panel and coach Tim Nielsen into retirement.

2. Commission a wide-ranging report into the whole structure of Australian cricket.

3. Appoint new people to head up Cricket Australia. In my view the following should be appointed:

Chairman: John Howard.
CEO: Wayne Jackson.
Chairman (NSP): Greg Chappell.
NSP members: Steve Waugh, Allan Border, Damien Fleming.
Coach: Rod Marsh.
Assistant coach: Micky Arthur.

4. Rebuild the Australian team from the ground up.

5. Restore the Sheffield Shield as the number one domestic comp. Make the Shield regular season games five-day games, in line with Test cricket.

6. Make the long-term goal regaining the Ashes in England 2013.

7. Put more money into club/grade cricket. Have a Champions League-style tournament between the premier clubs from each of the six states major club comps.

8. Another long-term goal for the team would to be the number one Test team in the world again.

If all these things can be achieved within five to 10 years, Australian cricket would be back – bigger and better than ever.

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